Moldova

In the 1990s and early 2000s, the World Bank Group and other development partners actively promoted the mobile revolution, opening up telecommunication sectors that were largely monopolistic and state-owned. The mobile phone, which was seen initially as a luxury good, became a key driver of growth and social inclusion in Africa, South Asia and throughout the world.

The Electronic Visa (e-Visa) has emerged as one of the most innovative services implemented in the area of freedom of movement and people-to-people contacts.

E-Visa allows the management of the visa application process to take place entirely in a virtual environment. Everything is done with the help of the Internet: the visa application and supporting documents are submitted online, the payment is made online and the decision on the application is communicated online. Some of the best examples of e-Visa services I have encountered are implemented by the authorities of Australia, Turkey, New Zealand and Georgia.

Although anyone with Internet access can open a Facebook or Twitter account in a matter of minutes, creating an efficient and interactive environment between state institutions and citizens abroad is no easy task.

Over the last few years, social media has revolutionized the way people and institutions communicate and interact. Today, the big question for governments around the world is how to use innovative IT tools to engage diasporas in an ongoing, sustainable, result-oriented and cost-effective dialogue. Here are a few ways that social media helps facilitate that dialogue.

Warren Buffet once said “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.” A positive international reputation, or the way I like to call it - “iReputation” - is something every person, company, organization, or country is looking for. Considerable amounts of money are being spent on building international reputation, especially by countries. Some are investing their resources in submitting competitive bids for hosting the Olympics, regional or world sports competitions, assuming that the successful organization of these events will strengthening and improve their iReputation and credibility. Others are trying to use costly and innovative marketing tools in order to give visibility to their countries and thus attract more tourists, investors and other categories of visitors. In this post I will address the case of some countries which have managed to gain iReputation because of successful implementation of eGovernment.

The Republic of Moldova is one of the first countries in the region and among the top 16 countries in the world to launch an open data platform. The initiatives of the Republic of Moldova to open its government and public data by capitalizing on Informational Technologies will lead to the improvement of public services, an increase in transparency and the promotion of innovation.

This spring the World Bank will partner with the Government of Moldova and a range of stakeholders to organize a competitive Open Innovation Hackathon focused on the reuse of open data in Moldova. This is more than just another apps competition, which generate both enthusiasm and skepticism for their ability to promote innovative and sustainable reuse of open data.